The Answer
by Steel Kiba
Summary: A brief, feel-good epilogue that takes place immediately after the ending of Your Name. Taki and Mitsuha didn't need to ask each other their names. Their efforts across time and reality brought them back together, and love would never let them forget again. Responses and reviews more than welcome!


"Can I ask you…your name?"

When the two people at opposite ends of the staircase spoke those words, that's when everything became mute. In the same nanosecond that the last syllables hit the air, all other sound evaporated. And that's when everything seemed to be washed out in white. Taki didn't really see or hear his bag hit the concrete with a _fwumph_ as he shifted it off of his shoulders. Mitsuha didn't see her cream-colored heels tumble down the steps when she kicked them off or hear the tiniest splashing sounds of her hand gripping the post-rain-soaked handrail as she pulled herself upward. Everything was invisible. Everything was silent. Everything was gone.

Except him.

Except her.

And then sight, sound, smell, taste, and most importantly to the young man and woman, touch returned when their bodies collided at the top of the alleyway staircase. Taki and Mitsuha threw their arms around each other, their fingers digging into one another's back as if a distant tornado threatened to rip them apart again.

"Mitsuha…"

"Taki…"

"Mitsuha!"

"Taki!"

The plaintive whispers became relieved and exuberant yells, and the earlier-released trickles of tears swelled into streams. Taki pushed his face into Mitsuha's shoulder and clenched his teeth so tightly he thought they would shatter, but at that moment any resolve melted, and he had no choice but to let the sobs come out. Mitsuha's attempt at a joyful noise was also quickly decimated. She tried to laugh through her tears, but now all that came out of her throat was a high wail only muffled by Taki's chest.

The two carried on like that for a while, locked together with almost no movement save for the tremors caused by heavy, loud crying and noticing nothing else in the world. Chirping birds flew overhead. A few children on bicycles zipped on past. An elderly couple opened their second-story window to see what all the commotion was about. After looking on at the youths for a few seconds, they smiled at each other and gently closed the window back up.

Taki took a few seconds to run his fingers through Mitsuha's hair and cradle her head into his chest. Mitsuha in turn raised her arms so that she could caress Taki's shoulders. Both of them finally pried their faces from each other, the man's white dress shirt and the woman's pink jacket deluged with moisture from their lachrymose symphony. After taking deep breaths, Taki and Mitsuha at last got to look into each other's eyes. Ten seconds ticked by, and for all of those ten seconds the pair saw five years pass by once more – every uneasy waking moment, every laugh shared with their friends, every hour spent braiding an ethereal cord or poring over maps over a land destroyed by fragments of the cosmos. Those things and more danced across Taki's blue orbs and the hazel gems that were Mitsuha's.

Then time stopped for a brief moment once more. Lives torn asunder by fate and hearts wracked with uncertainty and grief were brought together when the man and the woman lips collided. The heat of the comet that struck Itomori became tepid tap water on an old pebble now that the slow-burning flames of unexpected love erupted into the tight kiss Mitsuha and Taki shared. All of the trips, the falls, the tumbles didn't stop them from escaping the doldrums of small-town adolescence, the haze surrounding first infatuations, or even forces outside of their orbit in hopes of reaching each other atop the concrete stairs.

Mitsuha and Taki continued their lip lock with their bodies practically sewn together, together as one in the same place after so long apart and even as each other. Their soft rubs of the shoulders and backs sent relaxing waves throughout each other and their tears still ran free and hot. Finally, they broke apart and took a breath. The couple silently stepped together to retrieve Mitsuha's shoes and Taki's bag. With everything collected, two lovers who knew each other inside and out bounded up the steps hand in hand and through the street to find the nearest train station. Whether it was his or her apartment, Taki and Mitsuha knew for sure that they would spend the rest of the day in each other's arms, watch the stars gleam in the night sky, and wake the next day side by side knowing, and ready to learn, much more than their names.


End file.
